Friday, September 21, 2012

Friday! History, Military, POW/MIA, Quotes, More!

On This Date In 1595 Mexican explorer Don Juan de Oñate's petition and contract for the conquest of New Mexico was presented to Luís de Velasco, the viceroy of Nueva Vizcaya. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sep21.html
On This Date In 1638 The Treaty of Hartford divided the spoils of, and brought to an end, the Pequot War, virtually eliminating the Pequot Indians.
On This Date In 1676 Blessed Pope Innocent XI (May 16, 1611 – August 12, 1689), born Benedetto Odescalchi, was elected Pope, and served until his death in 1689.
On This Date In 1779 During the American Revolution, the Louisiana governor and Spanish military officer Bernardo de Galvez, with the aide of American troops and militia volunteers, captured the British post and garrison at Baton Rouge, located in what was then British-controlled West Florida.
On This Date In 1780 During the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold met with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. The plot was foiled and Arnold, a former American hero, became synonymous with the word “traitor.”
On This Date In 1784 The nation's first daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, began publication.
On This Date In 1792 The National Convention, or the executive government of the French First Republic, proclaimed the abolition of kingship.
On This Date In 1846 Through September 24, the Battle of Monterrey was fought during the Mexican-American War. General Pedro de Ampudia and the Mexican Army of the North was defeated by U.S. forces under the command of Zachary Taylor and William J. Worth.
On This Date In 1864 The Battle of Fisher's Hill was fought as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864 during the American Civil War. A Union victory, four Union Army enlisted men and one officer received the Medal of Honor in the action at Fisher's Hill, located near Strasburg, Virginia.
On This Date In 1897 “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” was published in the New York Sun. http://academic2.american.edu/~wjc/santa.htm
On This Date In 1912 Harry Houdini's first public performance of the  Chinese Water Torture Cell was at the Circus Busch in Berlin, Germany.
On This Date In 1917 Austria-Hungary and Germany made separate replies to the proposal issued by Pope Benedict XV at the beginning of the previous month calling for an immediate armistice between the Allied and Central Powers in World War I. The one exception to the general rejection, by all sides, of the Papal Peace Note of August 1917 was Austria-Hungary.
On This Date In 1921 The Oppau explosion occurred when a tower silo storing 4,500 tons of a mixture of ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded at a BASF plant in Oppau, now part of Ludwigshafen, Germany, killing 500–600 people and injuring about 2,000 more.
On This Date In 1937 During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, commanded by Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, began aerial bombardment of Nanking.
On This Date In 1937 “The Hobbit,” a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien, was published. The book was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction.
On This Date In 1937 During World War II, and the Invasion of Poland, the second Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski was fought. The largest tank battle of the campaign, this German victory resulted in the destruction of the Polish forces.
On This Date In 1938 The New England Hurricane of 1938 was the first major hurricane to strike New England since 1869. Making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Long Island, New York, the hurricane was estimated to have killed between 682 and 800 people, damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at US$306 million ($4.7 Billion in 2012). To date it remains the most powerful, costliest and deadliest hurricane in recent New England history, eclipsed in landfall intensity perhaps only by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635.
On This Date In 1942 The first Boeing B-29 Superfortress made its maiden flight from Boeing Field, Seattle. http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=527
On This Date In 1943 The Massacre of the Acqui Division took place, the mass execution of approximately 5000 men of the Italian 33rd Acqui Infantry Division by the Germans on the island of Cephalonia, Greece, following the Italian armistice during World War II.
On This Date In 1955 “Tennessee's Partner,” a Western film starring Ronald Reagan in what Peter Bogdanovich called his “most likeable performance,” was released by RKO Radio Pictures. It co-starred John Payne as Tennessee, and was directed by Allan Dwan.
On This Date In 1961 During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army's 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, was activated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Special Forces were formed to organize and train guerrilla bands behind enemy lines. President John F. Kennedy, a strong believer in the potential of the Special Forces in counterinsurgency operations, visited the Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg to review the program and authorized the Special Forces to wear the headgear that became their symbol, the Green Beret.
On This Date In 1968 Jeannie C. Riley became the first female performer to top the Billboard Country and Pop charts simultaneously, with “Harper Valley P.T.A.”
On This Date In 1981 Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton struck out the 3,118th batter of his career to break Bob Gibson’s National League record for career strikeouts. Despite Carlton’s 10 shutout innings and 12 strikeouts, the Phillies lost the marathon game to the Montreal Expos in the 17th inning, 1-0.
On This Date In 1984 “Places in the Heart,” a drama film written and directed by Robert Benton, was released by TriStar Pictures. The movie stars Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, John Malkovich, Danny Glover, and Terry O'Quinn.
On This Date In 1987 “Dirty Dancing," an American romance film written by Eleanor Bergstein and directed by Emile Ardolino, was released by Vestron Pictures. The film features Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the lead roles, as well as Cynthia Rhodes and Jerry Orbach.
On This Date In 1987 Jaco Pastorius (December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), an influential American jazz musician, composer and electric bass player, died from a massive brain hemorrhage. John Francis Anthony Pastorius III was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1988, one of only six bassists to be so honored (and the only electric bass guitarist).
On This Date In 1989 The Senate Armed Forces Committee unanimously confirmed President George H. Bush's nomination of Army General Colin Powell as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell was the first African American to achieve the United States' highest military post.
On This Date In 1990 “The Razors Edge,” the 12th Australian and 11th international studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, was released on Atco Records. The album reached #2 on the US Billboard 200 and #4 in the UK, a smash commercial success that returned the band to the popularity of its glory years between the mid-1970s and early 1980s. The album has been certified 5x platinum (5 million copies sold) in the US.
On This Date In 1990 “Goodfellas,” an American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, was released by Warner Bros. It is a film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. Goodfellas grossed $46.8 million domestically, well above its $25 million budget. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won one for Pesci in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category. Scorsese's film won five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including Best Film, and Best Director.
On This Date In 1993 “Face the Heat,” the twelfth studio album (14th including major live recordings) by German heavy metal band Scorpions, was released on the PolyGram label. It was produced by the band and the late Bruce Fairbairn.
On This Date In 1999 The 921 earthquake, also known as the Jiji earthquake, occurred in Jiji, Nantou County, Taiwan. 2,415 people were killed, 11,305 injured, and NT$300 billion (US$10 billion) worth of damage was done. It was the second-deadliest quake in recorded history in Taiwan, after the 1935 Hsinchu-Taichung earthquake.
On This Date In 1999 “The Fragile,” the third studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, was released on Interscope Records. The album was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and long-time collaborator Alan Moulder. The Fragile peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart in its debut week, before dropping to number 16 the following week. The album has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of one million copies in the United States.
On This Date In 2001 A huge explosion occurred in the AZF fertilizer factory in Toulouse, France, belonging to the Grande Paroisse branch of the Total group. Three hundred tons of ammonium nitrate was stored in the hangar #221. The whole factory was destroyed, making a crater of depth 20 to 30 m (65 to 100 ft), with a diametre of 200 m (650 ft). The blast measured 3.4 on the Richter scale, with an estimated power equivalent to 20-40 tons of TNT.
On This Date In 2011 Two American hikers imprisoned on espionage charges in Iran were released, and brought by diplomatic convoy to a plane that took them to Oman. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/middleeast/iranian-lawyer-says-2-american-hikers-hopefully-are-about-to-be-freed.html?_r=0



Quotes

Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable. William Pollard

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. George Bernard Shaw

Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them. George Savile

Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown. Benjamin Franklin

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Thomas Paine


Courtesy You Tube et al

NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with space shuttle Endeavour mounted atop arrived Sept. 20 at the agency's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in California. Following an overnight stay, the SCA and Endeavour will salute the Edwards Air Force Base area early Friday, Sept. 21 with a low flyby northbound...

TOPICS: Median Household Income-Social Security-Obama-Mitt Romney-David Axelrod-Gallup Polling-David Letterman-Netanyahu-Dina Lohan-Dr. Phil-Mailman Cocaine Dealer
Starring: Jodi Miller; Production: Dialog New Media

To honor the sacrifice of service members who were prisoners of war or are still missing in action, observances of National POW/MIA Recognition Day, traditionally observed on the third Friday in September, are held across the country on military installations, ships at sea, state capitols, schools and veterans' facilities.


There is no justification for present existence other than its expansion into an indefinitely open future. Simone de Beauvoir

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person. Albert Einstein



No comments:

Post a Comment